Tale of the Exiled
by Elrabin
Summary: A dying soldier tells his captors his life story, and the history of his people.
1. Introduction

Author's note: This is based on a campaign I worked on for a while, which was never played. If I get some feedback (preferably good) I will keep working on this. I just don't want my efforts to go unnoticed J 

This here is the introduction (I wish they had a section for one). This whole thing is from the Empire's Chronicles, a historic recording kept by the Emperor's scribes. They record everything that happens within the Empire and combine them all into one large book every 3 months. The Empire is on the only known continental body of land. They have pretty much united the area, however some pockets of resistance exist still. There are the occasional rebellions, however they are quelled quickly. This is all recorded on a small island between the known land and a new one, which the "savage" will describe in future chapters. Now on with the show! 

_The lost sea was thought to be endless. Recently, some explorers reached the Empire claiming they found a land _ _filled with savages. It was large and the glint of gold could be seen from miles away. The Emperor immediately funded a colonization crew to land and clear off the natives, then to build a mining camp and a barracks. When no news returned, the Emperor himself led an expedition to the island. When they arrived, the savages were discovered to be a mix of many races: humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, and halflings. They beat back the forces that landed, but the Emperor was able to retreat. He returned soon after with many skilled mages, and shot fireballs at the savages from ships. The mages found the savage town with their magic, and quickly destroyed it with a shower of many stones. Then the ships landed, and the warriors searched for survivors. All the survivors were found in a cave, wielding golden spears and swords. They held off until the mages arrived and finished them off. The dead were then collected and thrown into the sea, however there was one man that was found on the fringes of death. The Emperor had the clerics heal him just enough so the man wouldn't die, then he would question the man. The man healed quickly, and it was discovered that he could speak the ancient kingly language, Mokaru. He was permitted to speak to the Emperor, the only one who could understand him. The savage said he knew of another land, beyond the eastern line, which was more bountiful than this. He asked to tell his tale, which would explain everything. _

_The Empire Chronicles, fifth day of Sarno _


	2. Chapter 1

Hmm, now how should I begin...  
First thing is first, my name is not Savage, it is Morant, and I was the king of the Old kingdom called Tolian. The Kingdom was on the lands far west of here. It was richer and more bountiful than any land close to it. I came to be king through my father, who was King before me. Before I received the Kingship, I was permitted to leave the castle unattended. I usually left with 3 others though, friends as far back as I can remember.  
We normally hunted anything we could find, mostly deer and boar, and an occasional wolf. Once those got boring, we carried out tasks for locals, who were humbled to receive our services.  
  
One such occasion was for an old farmer. Goblins had been raiding his farm for a few months, and the guards wouldn't stop them. We gladly volunteered to do the job for free. We searched for the goblin lair for a couple days. When we found it, they ambushed us and tied us to a traveling cart they probably stole. Worgs pulled the defiled vehicle, and the paraded us around their camp. We had no idea there were so many hiding in the foothills. They eventually tied us up to tall wooden poles. It took nearly all of them to hold us down while they piled on one another to stretch our hands to the top and tie them. While they were idle, they took to stoning us. At first they were tiny stones, and as a funny thing, to them anyway. Then it got more serious as my father's search parties got closer. The mage with me finally gathered enough energy to set his ropes on fire and escape. The goblins got enraged and tried to follow, but fell into one of their own pit traps. The mage returned to us and untied our ropes, just in time for another band of goblins to arrive, these were fully armed. The only weapons we had were our fists, so we ran naturally. Luckily we ran into the Royal cavalry at the edge of their encampment, and they slaughtered the goblins in tow. I returned to the castle where I was scorned, but soon after received a suit of chain armor and a sword imbued with magic. Unknown to me, the sword sent a warning to my father every time it tasted blood.  
  
It wasn't long before the goblin hoard in the southern wastelands heard about this, and sent a large army. My father decided to send my and my comrades to fight them, since we were the cause of this mishap. We were in the rear of the first wave if the soldiers. We intersected the invaders in the southern foothills. We were outnumbered 20 to 1. Javelins filled the sky and goblins were appearing all around us. The order was shouted to retreat, and the mages created a fog to delay the pursuers. Half of us made it to the fort nearby, the other half would undoubtedly become dinner for the attackers. Those that fell were honored, including the 3 comrades I had. I was given a bow at the fort, as well as arrows. Mages were sent out on horseback to lure the goblins to the fort, since spiked pits encircled the fort. 2 out of the 6 mages returned, with a following of nearly 150 goblins, raising their fists and throwing crude javelins at the fort. It was at that moment in which I learned how good I was at archery. I was able to hit a goblin each shot, and seriously wound it, if not kill it. When the goblins reached the pits, for some reason they did not fall in. They kept on rushing at us, out of javelins at this point, but still managing to dodge arrows. When they reached the gate, for some reason it burst open, as if by godly force. I immediately jumped down and wielded my sword. It was then that I saw these goblins up close, and they weren't ordinary. Their armor and weapons glowed with an odd reddish light, and they seemed stronger than the average stupid one. It made no difference; I would fight to the death. As soon as I killed one, my world went black and I became disoriented. No more were there goblins, but now there was a castle wall. In front of me was a strange elf. He had blood red eyes, snow-white hair, and dark blue skin. He wore many rods on his wrist, and held a large staff. He was dressed in a dark black robe that touched the ground. I recognized the castle as Tolian. The elf spoke in Draconic, which I learned to be the language spoken by most intelligent evil creatures. He said I had a good disguise, and that it would be easy getting in now. I later learned this creature to be of a Drow, an evil and twisted creature that lives underground. They hate light, however this one had stood out in plain daylight unaffected. He pulled out a wand and pointed it at the wall. He spoke an incomprehensible word and the wall twisted out of existence. He opened a scroll and read its contents. Immediately the scroll burned up, and a red ported appeared in front of him. Horrible demons stepped out and started wrecking the city. I watched in horror as strange evil creatures were smashing my town. I felt another wave of disorientation as my world went black again. When I could see once more, I found myself in some strange land. Next to me was the court Mage and my father, along with my father's elite soldiers. Everything besides them looked blurred out. I could barely distinguish the interior walls of the castle. My father quickly said that we were in the Etheral Plane and we had to move fast. I followed him out of the castle and past the city walls. The whole way I saw the blurred figures of demons, spouting fire and ice. When an arrow flew at me, I thought I was dead, however it went right through me. I kept running until I saw the Drow from earlier. As soon as I stopped, he looked at me and laughed. He appeared normal after waving a wand. The court mage gasped in horror and started putting up a defensive shield as the elite soldiers closed in on the Drow. My father grabbed me and started dragging me out of the remains of the city. At the gate, a giant fireball appeared out of nowhere. It started rolling towards us. My father kept running at it. Once he disappeared into the flames, the fireball collapsed on my father, who was in terrible pain. He was on fire and grasping his heart. He shouted to run as fast and as far as possible. And so I ran far and fast. Eventually the world came back into focus and I stopped running. I still had my chain armor, but I realized my sword was gone. This was the most terrorizing moment of my life.   
  
I ended up on a trade caravan to the nearest city, which was a few days ride. I hoped not to see any living thing other than a human at that point. The owner of the estate near the city was my fathers best friend, who I hoped would armor me and point me to a place to stay. 


	3. Chapter 2

Author's note:

Thank you, my whole two reviewers!  I have figured out a way now to make it more exciting (I hope) and retain the same kind of story line.

***

I am sorry, Emperor, if my details have not been all that great, but that has been over 700 years ago!  I know, how can a human live so long, and how does he retain his good looks...but it will all be explained shortly.

After reaching Garkor, the castle where the trade caravan was headed, I immediately headed to Kargor, the dwarven Lord of the estate.  After I told him of the news, he outfitted me in his best mithral chainmail, along with an elvish compound bow made by his personal bow maker.

Kargor then told me the secret of his clan.  He said the only way we could defeat this evil was to get through to the old underground mines of his clan, and retrieve his cousin's ring of wishing, which had been hidden in a safe.  He gave me a map and a steed and sent me on my way.

The cave was a good week's hard ride, though it was through relatively safe areas.  The only trouble I ran into was during my fourth day...

A small group of gnolls had attacked a town, howling like they always do.

_At this moment, the Emperor asked what a gnoll was because he had never heard of it before.  The savage responded by saying that they were brutal beasts, a cross between an orc and a hyena.  They are about seven and a half feet tall, and feed only on intelligent creatures because they scream more_.

I pulled out my bow and took aim on the closest one.  I fired at him and hit him the shoulder.  The gnoll fell down and got back up, barked out a few words, and rushed at me, with three behind him.

I quickly shot another arrow, which clipped the lead one in the leg, and then I directed the horse in the opposite direction.

One gnoll pulled out a shortbow and attempted to shoot me while running.  He missed horribly and then shot another gnoll in the back of the neck.  It fell and the others ran over it.  I stopped the horse to fire another shot, and hit the target in the chest.  It fell face-first into the ground.  I pulled out a longsword and got off the horse, in preparation for the last two.

The injured one got to me first.  He swung with his battleaxe, but I was able to shrug it off.  I replied with a thrust at his chest, but instead hit his neck.  The sword got stuck, and I couldn't get it out before the last one reached me.

The last one had eyes that were burning with rage.  He had his battleaxe out and was swinging at me in frenzy.  I dodged and got close up and attempted to grapple it, however he was much larger and stronger and was able to pin me.

The gnoll was about to bite my head off when an arrow hit him in the left shoulder.  He jumped off me to see a townsman holding the same bow the gnoll used.  Another arrow was fired at him, but the gnolls armor succeeded this time and the gnoll rushed the townsman.  The man screamed as he was chewed to bits, but I was able to reach my bow and fire the fatal shot to the back of its head.

I searched the bodies for anything of value, but didn't find much.  I wanted to travel light, so I left their weapons, however I did manage to find a few unbroken arrows.  Most important though, I found a ring on the last one I killed.  As soon as I touched it, I knew it was magical.  I picked it up and wore it.

I started again on my journey to the mine.  I didn't encounter anything more on the way that needed to be taken care of.

When I reached the mine, I saw a few broken arrows sticking out of the ground.  I knew there was trouble recently.  I tied the horse to a tree, lit a torch, and grabbed my sword.  I entered the place.  The tunnels were quite small, a squeeze for me to fit in.  A few tunnels that were too small for me to fit in ran off from the main one.  I eventually came into a large open hall, with the smell of death imminent.

As far as my torchlight permitted, I saw bodies.  Dozens of dwarven bodies were scattered on the ground.  They had on bits and pieces of mithral chain, and most had picks in their hands.  Blood was everywhere, and most of it wasn't completely dry.  I remember wondering if the same fate came to these dwarves that came to my father's castle.  Then it showed itself.

It was a spider.  It came crawling off the roof and hissed at me.  It must have been half my size, and totally black.  I didn't know how this one fiend had killed all these dwarves.  Then I realized it, that wasn't blood, it was webbing.

Red webbing flew at me from the spider's front legs.  I threw my torch at it and the webbing exploded into flame.  I ran towards the tunnel that led out, not worried about walls at that point.  The spider was occupied at the moment, with burning legs.  Eventually, I saw the exit and escaped, where two more spiders were waiting.  They had already drained my horse of its blood.

Author's note:

Ok, so I didn't get to the explaining yet, but I hope that action is pretty good.  I promise that the next installment will have the explanation.  Yea, it's a cliffhanger...so what?


	4. Chapter 3

Author's note:

Thanks again ssp47 for you review.

  
My vision turned blood red and I lost control of myself.  I could still see, hear, and feel everything though.

I charged one of the spiders as webbing from both snared me.  Somehow I managed to rip it off and continue towards the spider.  I swung quickly and accurately, killing the target within seconds.  Then my world went black.

When I came back into my senses, I still had no control.  In my hand was a ring of wishes, with 2 rubies in it.  I could barely hear myself talking, but I did catch the word immortal.  One of the rubies vanished.  Then, as the blood red was almost completely gone, I heard the last wish: Not to age.  The last ruby disappeared, and I gained total control.

I knew it was the ring I picked up.  It had to have been.  I tried to take it off, but it somehow grafted onto me.  Then I cut my finger off with my sword.  I knew that if I could get to a cleric, I could get it fixed later.  The ring detached and rolled into a spider's body.

As I looked up slowly, I saw a massive hall, filled with dead spiders and the red webbing.  There was a torch burning at a tunnel leading off, which I assumed to be the one I threw earlier.  I picked it up and walked down the tunnel.

It took about fifteen minutes to realize I was lost.  I kept walking though, and I thought it would hopefully open out to the surface.  I lost track of time, and eventually wound up in another large hall.  This one had no spiders, so I knew I had gotten somewhere.  My torch was burning very low, and I needed to get out fast.

Then I smelled a foul odor.  It was like rotted meat, and it was coming from a large opening into some kind of room.  I could see that there was a door behind it, with faint light from under the cracks.  I drew my sword and approached cautiously.

My torch flickered and died out right before I reached the door.  I stopped and listened for a while.  I couldn't hear anything.  I decided it best to get in and kill anything inside, so I kicked the door in.  Three goblins woke up and jumped off their cots.  They wielded poorly crafted short swords.

I knew they were no match, and let them advance.  The problem is that more were coming in from behind.  Once I realized this, I jumped at the lead one in front of me.  I took him down fairly easy with a few slashes at its chest, and then moved on to the left one.  The two left in front on me tried to attack, but my armor protected me from their bad weaponry.

I managed to slice the neck of the one in front of me as the goblins in the rear moved forward.  A spear hit me in the back, but this was from no goblin thrust.  I fell to the ground, unable to move.  They jumped on me and started inflicting all the damage they could.  Then I passed out.

  
***

When I awoke, I found myself in a luxurious bed, with clerics around me.  They were amazed that I had lived, since they thought I was dead for sure.

I was then summoned to the lord of the estate, who happened to be Westor, one of my father's highly decorated commanders.  He told me he was chasing a large force of goblins for about a week and finally found their quarters.  Once he eliminated them, he recognized me and brought me back to the castle, where he discovered I was still breathing.  He then had his clerics work on me constantly.

He told me he knew of the bad news, and of the quest I was on.  I told him about the cave, and that I didn't find the ring and then got lost.  I felt bad lying to him, but to tell him that I wasted the ring, and one of the few answers out, would surely get me killed.

He said that I could stay as long as I helped out with the city guards.  I accepted, and joined the ranks of the "D" watch, the watch before the dawn.


	5. Chapter 4

Author's note:

Thanks ssp47 and Blooknaburg for your reviews!

***

I had lost all my gear, including the mithral chainmail.  The men at the "D" watch gladly led me to the armory though, and let me choose what I wished to wear.  Nothing in the armory looked like it was anything special, so I took a longsword and a longbow.  For armor I took steel chainmail.

We were dispatched after the "B" watch was dismissed.  In the guard, there are four separate watches.  It is a big wheel.  "D" watch is on duty from sunset to sunrise.  The main responsibility is to secure the walls and gates, and make sure there are no intruders.  Secondly, we are to keep the peace in the city.

On my first night, I was standing alone on the south wall, looking over the plains.  There was a long of townsfolk, probably from my father's castle, heading towards large cities they thought could protect them.

A gust of wind blew, so strong it nearly blew me off the wall.  Around me, there was no evidence of any wind at all.  I knew this was some sort of magic.  I started to shout in alarm as I was slammed again, and the air knocked out of me.  I couldn't see the source of this wind at all.  I grabbed onto the battlements to an effort to hold on.  Again I was hit, and I was forced flat onto the wall, but I did manage to yell an alarm.  I stood up, thinking that they had left, only to be hit again and fall behind the wall into the city.  I passed out as soon as I landed on the ground.

***

I don't know how long I was out for, but when I woke up it was noon and I had lost all of my weapons and armor.  Thieves must have stolen them.  I got up and made my way back to Westor's castle, where I could be outfitted again.

After I told Westor what happened, he told me it was no magic he had ever heard of.  He said it sounded like an invisible stalker.  They are air elementals native to the plane of air.  He said someone would have had to summon it for it to attack me.  There was someone after me, but I didn't know whom.  At the moment they thought I was dead, so I had some time to figure it out. 

For the moment though, I needed cash to buy something better than a mediocre longsword and bow, so I would join Wextor's next campaign in order to acquire the funds to do so.  He told me that he would pay me well if I led a small scout group into the eastern marshes.  There were orcs hiding out there, and raid local villages for food.

(To picture an orc…picture the Uruk-hai from lord of the rings)

I was outfitted again, however with lighter armor.  I donned studded leather armor and again took a longsword and a longbow.  I was to leave at dusk, and return with my findings.  Then he would mobilize his troops on that position and wipe them out.

Author's note:

This is a bit shorter than others, but the next one should be quite long.


	6. Chapter 5

Author's note:  
Thank you ssp47 and blooknaburg for your reviews!  Get ready-this one should be good.

***

An hour before dawn I met the two that were to go with me.  One was an elf and the other was a halfling.  They both had longbows slung over their shoulders and were wearing brown traveling cloaks.  They handed me a cloak and told me it would help us hide in the swamps.  They said that they would not bring anything else aside from wineskins and a week's trail rations.  The elf's name was Rywin and the halfing was Coggin.  We left immediately on foot.

Rywin led the way and Coggin protected the rear.  To get to the swamps, we had to take a three-day hike over the plains and then cross over a deep river.  After that we would need to go one more day on the plains before we reached the swamps.  We would not light any fires to keep attention away from us, and we were to push as hard and fast as we could.

We met no opposition on the plains.  We reached the river on the third day at about noon.  We had no raft, and there were no trees anywhere near us.  It was too swift and too deep to attempt to cross by swimming, and there were cataracts not far downstream.  We headed upstream to look for a shallow point, or some sort of bridge.  It took us the rest of the day, but we finally found a small village that had constructed a bridge.  Strangely, there wasn't anyone in the houses.  The town was empty, with no sign of life.  We found the inn and decided to spend the night in a bed.

For some reason, I had a hard time sleeping that night.  It was pitch dark outside, aside from the moonlight, and I heard a moaning sound.  At first I thought it was the wind, but then I heard it again.  I woke up Rywin and Coggin, and we stepped outside to investigate.  Something dark moved between the moon and us, and the three of us quickly pointed our bows at it.  We watched the shadow fly around some before Coggin broke and fired.  The arrow flew right through the shadow, which then spotted us and flew to the ground.  Rywin and I loosed our arrows.  They both missed their targets.

The shadow resembled a human, but it was distorted badly.  It charged us, screaming an undecipherable language.  It reached Coggin and swung at him, bypassing his armor.  Coggin fell to the ground with a scream.

I launched another arrow at the shadow, which passed right through.  Rywin drew a short sword and jumped at the shadow.  He plunged his sword deep into the shadow's chest.  The sword turned a bright blue and the shadow exploded into tiny balls of light.

Coggin had no wounds, but he somehow lost his strength.  Rywin and I helped him up and into a bed.  We were forced to stay there for two days while Coggin recovered.  Fortunately we met no more shadows.

We left the small ghost town and headed towards the swamp.  The ground was slowly going from flat and dry to uneven and wet.  Towards the end of the day, Rywin went to look for a place we could make camp at.  Instead, he found a camp of orcs.  It was decided to take them out.  They weren't hard to find, they had lit a fire and were singing some sort of profane orc song.  There were four of them, all in a circle around the fire, their weapons discarded in a small pile of junk.

We quietly got into our places in the knee-deep muck (well, for Coggin it was wast-deep).  I gave a low whistle and we all hit our targets with deadly accuracy.  Three orcs fell and one was sitting and still singing.  Coggin stepped onto the dry "island" and snuck up on the unsuspecting orc.  He drew his dagger and managed to slit the creature's neck.

Author's note: If you don't know much about swamps, let me explain a little bit.  In a swamp, you will have small pools/lakes, you can have marsh-type land (where there is still water, but a lot of plants growing in the water itself), soft wet ground, and then you get the islands, elevated portions of land where trees and other plant life grow.  These are mostly dry.  Well, if any of that is wrong, then that info applies only to my swamp :) 

We found nothing of interest that they had.  We let the fire keep burning so we could dry off and sleep for the night.  In the morning we kept our search up for more orcs.  Rywin led and Coggin kept the rear, as always.  At about noon we found an island to sit and have lunch at, but then we realized Coggin was missing.  We backtracked for hours trying to find him, but we saw nothing.  As Rywin went to look through some bushes, he disappeared through the marsh bottom.  I chased after him and fell as well, however I landed on a hard dry surface, in the middle of a squad of orcs.

We were bound and gagged and taken to the orc chieftain.  There we saw Coggin had been through the same thing.  The chieftain ordered us to be put into a prison cell and held for ransom.  Our weapons and armor were taken and we were thrown into a small cell.  It was carved out of the ground and had steel bars.  The ground was soft here, so we started to dig through the bottom of the cell.  The orcs had left us alone, and we managed to get out.

We heard a couple of orcs coming down the hall, so we took position to attack them.  There were two; each had some sort of crude leather armor and an old axe.  We were on them before they realized who we were.  Rywin held one and I held the other while Coggin beat them down.

We took the axes and left the rags.  We had no clue which way was out.  This cave network was made using no logic at all.  We must have gone in circles at least three times before we found another hall.  There was a light at the end of the tunnel, so we quickened our pace, only to be received by a large gathering of orcs.  Many torches lined this large room, and there was a tunnel that led up.  To get out, we would need to kill some twenty-odd orcs with only two rusted axes.  We ran back into the tunnel and turned to face them.  Coggin got behind us as the mob of orcs rushed us.

Limbs and heads were flying left and right.  I was the first one to take a hit, a deep gash on my left arm.  Coggin grabbed the sword of a fallen orc and joined us, hacking away at the knees of the orcs.  Coggin was then hit in the head with a large club and was knocked unconscious.  As we neared the end of them, Rywin took a near-fatal blow to the chest.  We finally defeated them all.  I dropped my axe and picked up Coggin, and ran up the tunnel to the surface, with Rywin in tow.  We ran out of the swamp and reached the old town by midnight.  We slept until the morning.  When we woke up, Coggin had recovered almost completely.  Traveled back to the castle, but this time it took us four days.  When we arrived, we told him of the underground lairs, and he quickly sent orders for a military unit to report back to the castle.

We were given our pay, and outfitted once more.  I once again took a longsword, longbow, and this time took chainmail.  I was also given the customary cape of the scouts, dark green in color.  The pay was very large, 100 platinum coins.  Now I just needed to find some affordable yet reliable weapons…

Author's note: I hope you liked this one.  Was it long enough? Hehe.  On the monetary system..1 platinum coin = 10 gold coins, 1 gold coin = 10 silver coins, and 1 silver coin = 10 copper coins.  I think the average salary of a farmer is something like 1 gold coin..and your average longsword costs somewhere between 10 and 15 gold.  So, 100 platinum is a VERY large sum of cash. 


	7. Chapter 6

After I left the armory the shops were closing down.I decided to find a nice inn to spend the night at.Since I had the next few days off, I would look for a shop then.I wandered town and found a small, quiet inn on the outskirts of town called the Lion's Gate Inn.It was a respectable looking place, and the rent was only five silver coins a night.

After I grabbed something to eat, I went to sleep in the room.Several times I woke up hearing a scratching noise, but I could not find the source.A couple hours before dawn I head a creaking noise.I laid still and watched the chest by the door open slowly.A small man in a black cloak crawled out of the chest and looked around.It was too small to be an elf, and not big enough to be a dwarf which meant that it was a halfling.I feigned sleep as it walked towards me.He waved his hand front of me several times before moving over to the pile of gear I had.

He saw the bag of coins and his eyes nearly lit up the entire room.He couldn't lift it easily, and as he struggled with it I crawled out of my bed.As I crept up behind him, he started stuffing coins into his cloak.I got up right behind him and grabbed him.He was able to reach for a hidden dagger and stab my leg.I threw him into the wall and he fell limp.I checked him for anything of value and found nothing other than the stolen coins.I donned my armor and gathered my gear.He had opened a hole in the floor and placed a ladder up to the chest.It looked like it led to the sewers and I didn't want to get mugged by thieves.I decided I would go report this to the local authorities.

By the time I found the captain it was almost dawn.I told him of my news and he said that thieves are a large problem here.They controlled the sewers and attacked at will.Only the castle was safe from them.I was determined to stop them, but I needed better gear desperately, so I searched for a weapons shop.

I finally found one around noon.They had all sorts of gear, from the mediocre to magical.Things that were unidentified were much less than those that were identified, so I purchased two unidentified longswords and a finely crafted longbow.After testing them for the rest of the day, I found that one longsword would erupt in flames with my will's command, and the other would generate a field of lightning.

Now that I had fine weapons, I ventured into the sewers after dusk.At this time the thieves would be out looking for prey, leaving their den open.It didn't take long before I came upon a hidden door.I opened it and followed a long corridor.At the end I found a well-lit hall carved into stone.It must have been under the castle or outside of the city.I saw no one in the hall and started to look around.I soon came upon a large door embedded with precious jewels.It was unlocked, and I entered.There I found five drow sitting in a circle.

They saw me as quickly as I saw them.They stood up so fast that they knocked the chairs down.I drew my swords and willed them to perform.Only one challenged me.He had the normal features of a drow, the white hair, dark skin, and blood-red eyes.He pulled out a scimitar and smiled.He jumped at me and slashed at me so fast he looked like a blur.My armor protected me from most of it, but when he did strike me he inflicted major wounds.I lifted my swords up to parry and his scimitar snapped in half as it struck mine.The drow gasped and the air around us exploded in a flash of bright blue light.My world blacked out once again.

When I came back, I lying on the floor in the hall.I had nothing left besides my green cape.I got up and walked out.When I got back on the surface it was day again, about noon.

After reporting all this to the Westor, he joked about how someone could go through so much gear in a few days.He let me back to the armory after sending a squad of men to eliminate the thieves.I told Westor I would leave that day and look for some other way to defeat the drow.He gave me provisions and a horse and wished me luck.

I headed north after I left.I needed to find out a way to defeat the surfacing drow.After about five minutes on the road, an arrow hit me.I jumped off my horse and drew my longsword.I looked for the attacker, but then feinted and fell on the ground.

When I awoke I was in a dark, damp place, inside a cage.I could feel creatures around me, but there was almost no light.I struggled to get out for an hour or two before someone came.He carried a torch and I saw I was in some sort of room carved in the dirt.It was a drow who came.He whistled and three drow came into the room and bound me.The dragged me out of the room, and I saw a large underground city.There were drow and hideous monsters all over the place.Many looked at me with the look of hunger in their eyes.

I was dragged to a palace like place and I taken to a drow woman.She was dressed in a black robe and wore the talisman of Rhyode, the Goddess of Evil.On her head was a crown carved out of onyx.

She laughed as soon as she saw me, wondering how a runt like me was able to defeat her best warriors.She ordered that I was to have my head cut off and be thrown into the holy river in a week.Until then I would be locked in a cage without food or water.


End file.
